Man arrested after text messaging leads him into sting

Steuben County Sheriff’s deputies will go to any length to catch a crook. Including using technology to deceive them.

Justin Head

Steuben County Sheriff’s deputies will go to any length to catch a crook. Including using technology to deceive them.

When James Lee Wilson, 23, of Atlanta, N.Y., ventured to a nearby park Thursday night, he thought he would be meeting 13-year old girls for sexual purposes. Instead, he was arrested.

According to a statement made by the Steuben County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy was given information by an anonymous source that a man in the Wayland area was looking to have sex with underage females.

The office’s Criminal Investigation Unit made contact with Wilson posing as two 13-year old girls. After initial contact, Wilson allegedly sent over 200 text messages to an investigator asking the underage girls to meet him for sexual intercourse and oral sexual contact.

Investigators made arrangements for Wilson to meet with one of the girls at a park between North Cohocton and Atlanta. An undercover female deputy, posing as one of the girls, was stationed at the park. As Wilson approached the female deputy, several sheriff’s deputies and Cohocton police surrounded Wilson and took him ino custody without incident.

Wilson was charged with two counts of second-degree attempted criminal sexual act and two counts of second-degree attempted rape, all class E felonies. He was arraigned in the Village of Bath Justice Court and remanded to the Steuben County jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 property bond.